Famed artist Hajime Sorayama has taken to Instagram to tease an upcoming collaboration with Chinese sportswear brand Li-Ning, leaving us all wondering what the new "sexy robot" sneaker or apparel might look like.
The fine line between digital and physical, fantasy and reality, is more blurred than ever. Between Fortnite dipping into luxury fashion, the return of The Matrix, and Tesla's humanoid robots, it's clear that we're entering into a future that a decade ago might have felt like fiction.
Throughout his artist career, Hajime Sorayama has walked and bridged this line. By blending sci-fi elements with human fantasies, he created superrealist art centered on robots – particularly, "sexy robots." In recent years, Sorayama has parlayed that work into a series of lucrative collaborations.
In a recent Instagram post, Sorayama unveiled a teaser for an upcoming collaboration with Chinese sportswear brand, Li-Ning. In the image, we see a robotic arm holds the Li-Ning logo atop a pronged instrument, giving little information away and much to be desired.
If one thing is clear from the teaser, the artist's famed robots will be making an appearance or at least referenced in the collaboration. Given the futuristic aesthetic of Li-Ning's fashion-focused footwear line, it seems likely that the creative partnership will be sneaker-based. This wouldn't be the first time Sorayama has lent elements of robotic desire to a sneaker, with the artist previously teaming up with Mizuno on two special-edition colorways of the Wave Prophecy 10.
What a Hajime Sorayama x Li-Ning Sunchaser or Furious Rider would look like is up for speculation but, given that Li-Ning's fortunes are skyrocketing at a similar rate as Sorayama's, the partnership only makes perfect sense.
